THE PUSH IS ON FOR LARGE SCALE INDUSTRIAL AQUACULTURE EXPANSION
WHERE WILL YOU STAND ON THE TAKE OVER OF MAINE’S WATERS BY FOREIGN CORPORATIONS?
If you ever wondered if industrial scale aquaculture was a serious problem, the news in the past few months tells us it is AND more so than ever. In this newsletter we are going to deal with salmon raised in net pens in the ocean. But it’s not just farmed salmon, we are seeing an increasing number of foreign companies that operate leases in Maine waters for exclusive use.
Protect Maine has been working around the state and in Downeast towns to pass ordinances and provide information about the potential dangers of farm raised salmon. Nine communities have passed ordinances that fit within in their communities. Protect Maine - Ordinances
Salmon Farm Update:
Cooke
Cooke Aquaculture is in the news again for the same alleged violations that surrounded the company several years ago. Cooke is headquartered in Canada. The newly released video revisits the Cooke hatchery in Bingham, Maine. See the undercover operation: https://animaloutlook.org/investigations/
You can also read more on this at the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/14/seafood-company-abuse-claims-fish-farming]
Meanwhile, Maine’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry has opened an investigation into Cooke’s practices as has the Global Seafood Alliance which provides Best Practices certification.
Update on the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) Lawsuit:
The 2025 CLF lawsuit is still pending in court.
Excerpt from lawsuit:
The salmon foster disease and harbor parasites, and they escape and interbreed with endangered wild salmon. In addition, Cooke discharges trash into Maine’s waters.
Cooke is continuously violating the Clean Water Act at its 13 active Cage Sites and related operations in Maine by adding pollutants, including but not limited to fish waste, trash, sea lice, diseases, and dead fish, to waters of the United States, and violating permit requirements related to monitoring, reporting, and Best Practicable Treatment Standards.
Link to full lawsuit: https://www.clf.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Conservation-Law-Foundation-Inc.-v.-Cooke-Aquaculture-USA-Inc.pdf
When we hear more we will update you.
Supersize It
There is also a federal push to increase the size of net pens to grow farm raised salmon in the ocean. In response, Protect Maine partnered with the Downeast Salmon Federation about the serious issues of a foreign companies, leasing for exclusive use, Maine waters. Here is an excerpt:
Excerpt from Op/Ed: Maine is now the last place in the United States where Atlantic salmon are raised in open ocean pens, in the same coastal waters where endangered wild Atlantic salmon migrate and persist. As a result, Maine has become a primary foothold for Cooke Aquaculture, a Canadian multinational and one of the world’s largest producers of farmed salmon.
Read the full piece here: https://www.protectmaine.com/pmfhf-news/push-to-supersize-aquaculture-is-not-right-for-maine-opinion
As you may recall, Washington state banned net pen salmon after a Cooke salmon pen collapsed, and fish escaped in 2017. Last week, a woman from Washington State, penned a letter to the editor asking Mainers to look at the seriousness of what is happening in Downeast Maine.
Read more here: https://www.protectmaine.com/pmfhf-news/maine-should-crack-down-on-cooke-aquaculture-letter
At the beginning of this newsletter we asked,
WHERE WILL YOU STAND ON THE TAKE OVER OF MAINE’S WATERS BY FOREIGN CORPORATIONS?
Protect Maine is asking you to take a personal stance and join us – here’s how:
Donate immediately so we can be in more coastal towns interested in the ordinance process.
Donate immediately so we can continue our hydrodynamic modeling which will be unveiled later this summer/fall. We expect it will demonstrate where the output of large-scale industrial farm waste is going. Answering the question: Is it accumulating or flushing out? The answer to that could directly impact industrial fish farm renewals.
Sign our Petition to take action on 1,000 acres
Send us an email at Protect Maine indicating you are willing to engage at the legislative level in 2027.